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What are McConnell, Republicans really threatening here?

Chris Graham
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Mitch McConnell promises to make the voices of millions of Americans he says would be silenced by voting rights reforms heard, which sounds like he’s threatening another insurrection.

Because what else is he saying here?

“If my colleague tries to break the Senate to silence those millions of Americans, we will make their voices heard in this chamber in ways that are more inconvenient for the majority and this White House than what anybody has seen in living memory,” McConnell said on the Senate floor on Tuesday.

This is the official response of Republicans to the effort being led by President Biden to protect the votes of millions of Americans currently in limbo in GOP-controlled states.

Instead of moderating their policies to appeal to more voters, Republicans instead are trying to adjust the scoreboard by making it harder for people who don’t agree with their extremist approaches to the issues of the day to vote.

Biden signaled Tuesday that he would support a change to Senate rules eliminating the filibuster option from the GOP playbook on voting rights legislation.

What he should have done, of course, is said he supports getting rid of the filibuster forever more, because it’s a stupid rule that has been used by both parties over the years to block legislation that has majority support from seeing the light of day.

There’s nothing in the Constitution about the filibuster. It’s just something that has been around for a long time that nobody can really defend, except when you’re in the minority politically, and you want to block legislation that you don’t like.

“This is more than just about one issue,” West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said. “This is about fundamentally changing the fabric, the fence that the Senate provides by having the filibuster in place to make sure that we don’t have the dramatic swings from administration to administration, from majority to minority, Republican to Democratic, and that we keep the ship sort of going in the right direction and working together at the same time.”

This is the best defense that you’ll find for the filibuster, which shows how pathetic this whole issue is.

Getting back to McConnell, then, what was he saying about making things uncomfortable for Democrats and Biden, except for the obvious?

The Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection was, well, one word for it would be inconvenient, certainly.

The perpetrators claimed to be representing millions of people whose voices they felt were being silenced because of the fact that 7 million more people happened to vote for the other guy in the 2020 presidential election.

Their dear leader, you may remember, told them to go to Congress that day and let their voices be heard.

We all saw how that worked out.

Sounds like McConnell is using the dog whistle again.

Story by Chris Graham

 

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Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, TikTok, BlueSky, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected]. Support AFP by signing up for our newsletter and/or powering our work with a one-time or monthly contribution.

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